Day
15 – Tuesday April 12, 2016 Today was our day off so we drove to
Sparta to visit Backwoods Coffee Shop for a coffee and to use their
WiFi. After catching up on all our Internet needs we walked across
the street to the Alleghany Arts and Craft Co-op. This is a Co-op
store where the artisans from the area sell their merchandise. We
always like to browse the store and talk to the Co-op member that is
operating the store The members takes turns operating the store for a
day. If you are in the area and like quality hand made products this
is a good place to shop. Lena bought a set of ear rings for a
birthday present for our daughter-in-law. Then we walked down the
street to the local hardware store to browse it. This is a really
nice small town hardware store with a large variety of products. Not
exactly like old time hardware stores but different than a Lowes or
Home Depot.
The
lady in the Co-op store recommended the Baywood Boys Restaurant
across the street from the Co-op for good eastern style BBQ pork so
we decided to try it for lunch. I ordered a Beef Brisket sandwich
with baked sweet potato and Lena ordered the BBQ pork dinner that
comes with three sides. One side was a salad that was as large as
most salads you get when you just order a salad by itself. The plate
looked like there was a half pound of BBQ on it. I ate my sandwich
and some of the BBQ pork, Lena ate all she wanted and she filled a
carry out plate with the remainder – enough for another meal. The
BBQ was really good. They have several sauces you can choose from
The
next stop was the Alleghany Meat Market to get some baby back ribs to
cook in the dutch oven. One of the ladies at the park told us about
the meat market. Then on to Lowes Food store for a few groceries
before returning to the campground.
Day
16 – Wednesday April 13, 2016 We were off again today, so after
breakfast we did some exploring of some of the back roads in the
area. There are lot of cattle in the area grazing on green rolling
hills. We drove up to Camp Cheerio which is a TMCA facility which
overlooks part of Stone Mountain State Park. We can see some of the
buildings from the park. After a couple hours of exploring we were
getting hungry so we drove on to Sparta of a mushroom swiss burger at
Hardees. We checked out a few more side roads and drove a few miles
on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way back to the park.
After
getting back to the campground I rode my bicycle around the
campground before settling down to read for awhile.
Day
17 – Thursday April 14, 2016 We did our normal routine of having
breakfast and then placing the reservation signs on the reserved
sites and cleaning the sites that had been vacated. The weekend
“rush” begins today. After lunch we rode through the campground a
few more times and cleaned sites that had been vacated since this
morning and picked up any trash we saw on the streets. For the most
part the campers don't leave much trash on their sites. Sometimes
there will be metal cans in the fire pits (We don't understand why
people think a metal can is going to burn in the fire pit), a few
pieces of small trash and almost always there will be a bread tie on
the ground around the picnic tables. The thing that really makes us
wonder about people is why they will set a hot cooking pot on the
plastic tables. The tables at the sites are made of “2” x 6”
boards made from recycled plastic. And several have large round
melted places where hot cooking pots have been set on the tables.
About
6PM some friends of ours from Goldsboro checked in to site 51. We
stopped by for a quick chat while they were setting up.
Day
18 – Friday April 15, 2016 Lots of campers coming in today so we
had breakfast and put out about 50 reservation signs and got the
sites cleaned and raked those that needed it and checked the
bathhouses for supplies and maintenance issues. One of the campers
told us about a shower head that was broke off in the ladies shower
so we reported that to the maintenance staff.
About
4PM I started cooking my “almost world famous” ribs in the Dutch
Oven. It takes 2 hours, so while they were cooking I did a ride
through the campground while Lena prepared some side dishes for
supper. Our friends came over about 6PM and we had a good supper.
They had picked up a really nice blueberry and cherry pie for dessert
from a shop in Sparta. We had that with coffee later. Yummy. The ribs
were good but they were not as tender as the one we have been getting
from Walmart. Based on the size of the bone I think these were from
an older pig/hog. But they were still good.
Day
19 – Saturday April 16, 2016 We had breakfast and put out the
reservation signs for today and cleaned and raked several sites
before going to the Visitor's Center to work from Noon to 1PM. We
returned to our site and had lunch. Then rode through the campground
and cleaned and raked the few sites that had been vacated. The
weather today was really nice.
Day
20 – Sunday April 17, 2016 After breakfast we put out the
reservation signs and cleaned and raked some of the vacated sites.
Most everyone will be leaving today. As we were making our rounds one
of the campers stopped us and asked for help getting his car started.
His battery was dead. I got the jump starter I purchased last year
that I have never used and got his car started. This is a device that
is about 4” x 6” x 1” that amazingly carries enough power to
jump start a vehicle.
We
went the Visitor's Center from Noon to 1PM to work before returning
to the campground to cook a steak for lunch. About 2:45PM we checked
the restrooms and found a problem in the loop A women's restroom that
we reported to the maintenance staff and then started cleaning and
raking the sites that had been vacated since this morning that were
reserved for tonight. During that time the maintenance staff found a
bad underground water leak in loop B. They decided to close that
section down so it could be repaired tomorrow so we assisted getting
3 campers moved to vacant sites.
Finally
we got a chance to go back to our site and relax and read for awhile.
The weather today was the best we have had since getting here. I was
able to wear a short sleeve shirt for the first time.
Day
21 – Monday April 18, 2016 After breakfast we put out the 7
reservation signs for today and helped the maintenance staff rake and
clean sites. We had done so many yesterday there were not many to do.
We went down to the 4 group sites to clean them. There were probably
close to 100 people, including lots of kids, on the group sites this
weekend and we were surprised we found less than a palm full of
trash. Looks like the adults are training the kids correctly. Several
times during the day as campers departed we cleaned and raked those
sites.
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